Midieval Literature Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Midieval Literature - Term Paper Example The given paper will discuss the sources for The Canterbury Tales, specifically The Clerk’s tale, and investigate the differences between the versions of the story provided by different authors. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer represents a great diversity of stories narrated by many people. This diversity brings to conclusion that the sources the author took for this literary creation are very different. Such conclusion in its turn makes us think of the causes Chaucers had for writing some of the stories met in The Canterbury Tales and his reasons for using definite sources. The most worth-researching connection is the bound between  the story called The Clerks Tale  and its source. The alterations made by the author of The Clerks Tale  to the tale of Griselda show Chaucers wish to make his own deep and profound investigation of the age-old problems connected with marriage by researching the way of thinking of a husband and a wife (Smith, 2008). The first source of the tale defined by Chaucer himself is the work of Petrarch. Some place in the tale seems to be exactly copied from the source. Chaucer not only reflects the thoughts of Petrarch but even uses his words in some sentences. However, Petrarch can’t be called the main source for The Canterbury Tales. There is another creation that played more important role. It is The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, mainly his story of Griselda that represents the main source for The Clerk’s Tale. Actually, Chaucer himself did not say any word about this source and this is not surprising – not only the clerk’s tale, but many other stories included in The Canterbury Tales have their origin in Boccaccios The Decameron. The similarity is so obvious that it can be even assumed that Chaucer communicated with Boccaccio, but preferred to conceal this fact (Smith, 2008). Two abovementioned creators are considered to be the sources used by Chaucer for The Clerks Tale. However, the

Refugees and Asylum Seekers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Refugees and Asylum Seekers - Research Paper Example The situations that makes it impossible for a refugee to return to his home country must relate to something that makes it unsafe, dangerous or fatal for the individual to return to his home country. There are two facades to examine these situations that puts a person in danger. One angle is to view it from an individual perspective, where an individual, due to some activities or inherent situations is subjected to possible death, torture or inhumane conditions. On the other hand, a person might qualify to become a refugee if there is a situation that has been declared by the international community as a war or internal conflict. Chimni (2000) identifies that widest root cause of the exodus of refugees is ethnic reasons. This implies that people are more likely to become refugees because of persecution related to their ethnic views and identities. Chimni (2000) identifies two reasons for this. The first reason is that ethnic differences are susceptible to exploitation. Secondly, the control of a state by one ethnic group is likely to lead to threats to the lives of people of other ethnic origins. This definition of the term 'refugee' is consistent with Article 1 of the 1951 UN Geneva Convention. (Carlier, 1997). This UN statute makes it imperative for nations to take in persons who fall into the category of refugees to be given the status of refugee, which makes them entitled to some degree of help, support and rights in the host country (Carlier, 1997). Normally, a person who has a genuine fear in his home country moves into another country and applies for an asylum (Chimni, 2000). The asylum seeking process allows a potential refugee to present the reasons why he is fleeing form his home country. It is up to the authorities in the host country to assess the application and grant or refuse the application on several grounds. In most developed countries the reasons for seeking asylum is segmented to seven categories and each category has its own rules and proce sses (Hynes, 2011). Thus each application has to be put into one of the seven categories. When this is done, the relevant rules would be invoked based on the facts presented by the applicant. If the application is consistent with the rules for the specific category the application goes through, the asylum would be granted. And when this is done, a person's status is upgraded from asylum seeker to refugee. In this instance, the person is given basic necessities in life and allowed to live and work in the host country (Hynes, 2011). Technically, when an asylum seeker is granted refugee status, he cannot be deported back to his country of origin either until the person voluntarily goes back to the country or the situation in the country is declared over and there is no threat to the life of the individual in question. In some cases, an asylum application could be rejected on one of several grounds including abusive or unfounded (Hynes, 2011). An unfounded application is an application made by a person whose claim for asylum does not have a basis. An example is the case of a person who claims to be at risk in his home country because of a human rights situation that his country has guaranteed against. Such an application would be declined by most countries because it does not seem there is a real threat. The second form of rejection is where an asylum claim is defined as a means to a given end other than escape from a dangerous situation in a person's home country. A common